•a group of people who are liable to pay a tithe
(=a tax to support the parish).

tithing manAlso: tyth~

•civ a town official appointed to enforce the laws and to see that order was preserved in the Lord's house;
tithing men were to present all the idle and disorderly persons, profane swearers or cursors, Sabbath-breakers and disorderly persons, that they may be duly punished and discouraged.

•originally a seventeenth-century charlatan's sidekick who,
in full view of a crowd, would pretend to eat a toad,
which at that time was considered to be poisonous.
The assistant would feign a severe reaction, to the horror or amusement of the naïve spectators.
The master would then dramatically demonstrate the curative power of the remedy he had for sale by using it to revive his
sidekick.
A corresponding verb, toad-eat, emerged shortly thereafter;
it meant "to do something quite unpleasant on behalf of one's master."
[Research on Forgotten
English Words]